releasing a gut hooked fish

[southernman]

i was wondering - ive always heard its better to release a gut hooked trout by just snipping off the line at its mouth and letting him go . . i've heard trout "lose" or "spit up" these hooks within a few days max . . gotta be better than ripping the hook out . . .

does anybody really know if they live?



thanks



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[Teroy]

depending on the degree of injury.

If a gut hooked fish is reeled in and you cut the line right away and release it, the hook will desolve and the fish has a very good chance of living.

However I'm sure if one was to tug, jerk and cram pliers down there trying to save a 5 cent hook and give up and release it, it may swim away, but chances are not far before it floats belly up.
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[southernman]

yes, normally we'll snip the line off without ever handling the fish/taking it out of the water, ect . .and snip the 4 lb line, and whoosh theyre gone fast . . seemingly unhurt . . .not dazed or anything . . .





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[Teroy]

Yes I would say so he would live.

I forgot to add to my first post that I have caught a few fish with hooks in them.
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[southernman]

obviously getting caught isnt detrimental to their appetite or strike reflex . . .



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[Teroy]

LOL doesnt seem to.
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[TubeDude]

[cool] I also have caught fish with line coming out of their mouths. I have also found "floaters" with evidence of "snip releases". One thing is certain, the fish will have a better chance of survival back in the water than in your cooler.

My personal belief is that the hook itself is only a part of the survival potential for a released fish. Stress is often a much greater factor. Fish that have been played out before being released...with or without hooks left in their guts...have a lower survival rate than those brought in quickly and then released without being removed from the water and handled.

I cringe when I watch the so-called "pros" on the TV shows. They beat a fish to a standstill, lift it from the water and hold it in unnatural positions, handle the slime-protected body, often dropping the fish onto the dry abrasive bottom of the boat, keep it out of the water long enough for the flared gills to begin drying out, etc. All the while they go on and on about their great catch and release ethic, before finally dropping the fish unceremoniously back in the water. I suspect that if a post-show film were to be made, there would be a few casualties on top of the water behind the "sportsmen's" boats.

Back on the subject of hooks "dissolving" in fish. I don't believe that happens soon enough to not be a problem. A couple of fish I have taken that had line hanging out of their mouths, had a significant growth of algae growing on the trailing line. That doesn't happen overnight. And, some fish I have cleaned had hooks in their innards that had obviously been there a L-o-o-o-o-ng time.

Still, I would rather give them a fighting chance, as long as they appear to be active and uninjured. But, whenever I detect any bleeding, I humanely dispatch the fish and put it on ice. Fish do not have much blood to spare, and almost any blood loss is likely to prove fatal. Fortunately, the bleeding usually occurs from hooking in or around the gills, rather than in the stomach.

That's my observation.
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[ruger]

Here's my two cents. All hooks are not created equal. According to some informal experiments I and some of my students have made from submersing hooks in weak acids a general trend has emerged. The hooks that disolved the fastest tended to be the smallest and/or least expensive. The fastest to disappear were the mustad fly tying hooks in sizes 12 and smaller. (about 4 days) Of, course I believe this is due mainly to size. Next came the generic snelled bait holding hooks from the discount stores (about 10 days) On the other end, hooks that appeared to be made out of stainless steel and/or brass were horrible! We had one hook (appeared to be Stainless) that was taken off a triple teaser that after 1 month there was no vible blemishes. We doubled the acid strength to about twice the strength that is found in human stomachs and the hook lasted another 3 months! Brass and gold colored hooks were a little bit better, but not much. A snelled brass colored salmon egg hook lasted 6 weeks before even showing any significant deterioration.

I guess my overall opinion is that if you are going to fish with bait or anythign else that could be swallowed and cause a gut hook, use a light, inexpensive hook. A possible home test could be to submerge some of your hooks in vinegar for a few days and check for rust. If they rust fast, they probably won't last long in a fish.--------HAPPY FISHIN'!

[Teroy]

Very interesting reading Ruger. I will have to give some of my hooks the "home test". Thank you
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[Fish-Dog]

I always use eagle claw feather weight circle hooks when I use night crawlers. about 80% of the fish will be hooked in the corner of their mouths. If I plan to release the fish I don't take it out of the water. If the hook is down in the throat I just snip the line, hooks are cheap. On occasion I do use power bait however I just put it on the circle hooks.

fdg
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[SteveMakivitski]

I can go one better, TD. I once caught a 17" rainbow out of Strawberry with about 2-3 inches of line emerging from it's anus. Pulling on the line produced a very small treble hook and some blood. I put the fish in the cooler and ate it later. I'm not sure if the fish could have eventually passed the hook or not, he was giving best shot though.
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[TubeDude]

[cool]Not a good visual. Brings to mind some of the other interesting things I have found in fish over the years. Probably one of the things I have found the most...in several species of fish...are undigested plastic worms...with and without hooks. Probably the most unique was a whole wristwatch...silver with an expando band...in the gut of a ling cod, off the Santa Barbara area. No, it was not a Timex and no it was not still ticking.

My best "true tall tale" was of a big rainbow I caught in Warm River, Idaho, when I was first learning to fly fish as a youngster. My dad had given me two grey hackle yellow flies. That's it. I spied the rainbow holding between two lines of water weeds, over light gravel. In spite of my youthful excitement I made a good enough cast to float the fly over his nose and he tipped up and sucked it in. I lost out to excitement then (as I still do sometimes) and snapped the fly off in the fish's upper lip. He wiggled and shook his head a few times, and then settled back into his old lair.

I had been told about "resting" a fish, so I stepped back away from the stream for awhile to allow the fish to settle down, and to keep from having a heart attack myself. Maybe fifteen minutes later (but it coulda been several hours) I forced myself to be calm and to present my second fly to the once stuck fish. About the tenth cast, it hesitantly moved up and ate it. This time I just tightened the line and held on. Luckily, I landed the fish and retrieved my first fly, along with the second.

I've heard similar stories over the years from other guys who hesitate to put their credibility on the line with such a preposterous tale...but, we're all fishermen. Who would ever doubt a fellow angler?
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[tomegun]

[cool] [#800000][size 3][#800000][size 2]Lets see, I've caught numerous fish at Strawberry with things in them. A four inch 1/4 oz tube with 3 feet of line out its buttox, one had four minnows inside(deceased), one had two crawfish and a minnow, and one had two of my paddle bugs it broke off. [/size][/#800000][/size][/#800000]
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[Bushwack]

I was at Strawberry a few years ago and while launching the boat I saw a few

good sized rainbows hangin out near the dock. I thought I might as well try

and get a bite, so I threw on a silver lure of some sort and was jigging it right

below the dock and one of the big rainbows came up and swiped at it with its

tale and got hooked.[pirate] Before I could bring it up, it broke the line with the

lure still stuck in its side. I watched it a little bit longer and it started rubbing the

gravel trying to unhook itself. I don't know if it ever came off, so if any one has

caught a big rainbow with a 3'' silver lure in its side, then I want it back! []
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[SturgeonKid]

Ya, this string is getting a little off the topic of the original post, but I can't help myself. haha. I have seen and dun a lot of the things already mentioned here. I have also caught many fish with hooks and lines hanging out of their mouths before. I one caught a 5lb channel catfish with powerbait on 6lb test, that had a big 3/8oz bass jig hanging out of his mouth with a bunch of line wrapped around it. The jig had obviously been there for a long time because it was pretty rusted and was totally covered in algea. I also once had a big trout break my line when I was younger and was just fishing with nightcrawlers once. Then 10 minutes later I hooked another big trout...8lber..., and pulled it in to find my bright golden shiny hook with still the nightcrawler hanging off to the side. Also, once last summer I was fishing out here in the Delta for bass throwing buzzbaits. My partner was working his buzzbait through a tree laying in the water and a good 4lb bass blew up on it in the middle of the tree. He didn't pull it out of the tree quick enough, and it broke his line. About 30 seconds later the fish jumped and threw his buzzbait right up onto the shore. Now for my weirdest story...once again, bass fishing in the Delta...we were doing some heavy duty flipping deep into some tules, when I stuck a good 3lb fish. When I landed it, it looked like there was about a 2ft long piece of tule hanging from him...I went to just brush the tule off of him and discovered that it was actually growing right out of his back!!! I pulled the reed out of him and it left a hole in his back about the size of a penny...



Sturgeon Kid---------<* ((( ><
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